Shush
/ʃʊʃ/noun
To urge someone to be quiet.
Did you know?Shush is an imitative word built from the sound of silence itself, and English has long used these sound-symbol words as verbal tools for controlling attention and behavior.
Etymological Timeline
Early Modern English
English
shush
“An imperative or exclamation used to demand silence.”
Mid-19th Century
English
shush
“Recorded as a whispered call for quiet, modeled directly on the sound of shushing.”
Old English
English
hysian
“To hush or silence; an earlier native verb related to quieting sounds.”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*hūsjaną
“To hush, quiet, or make silent.”
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*ḱeus-
“To hear, perceive, or pay attention.”